While writing about St Pancras Railway Station it made me think of the station of my childhood, which was Liverpool Street Station. This station is in the north east of London and services out to East Anglia.
As a child I had to come up to London on a regular basis to St Bartholomew's Hospital for my eyes, so we would catch the train up, about an hour or less depending on which train you caught.
At the time I traveled up in the fifties and sixties it was still very much the old Victorian station with a labyrinth of dark tunnels leading into it on the last section. As you crossed the switch plates and made all the hard turns to get into the station, the train would clank and sway. It was very Victorian and in later years reminded me of Cadogan West, Sherlock Holmes.
In my minds eye I can still see all the steam trains lined up in rush hour for the journey out. I can hear the whistle blowing, the carriage doors clanging shut, the porters running up and down, and the conductors shouting the train numbers and station stops. I always liked the old carriages with the long corridors and separate compartments off, as you see in the old movies.
In the station W. H. Smith was not the sleek bright book store of today, but woody and the smell of damp newsprint, where we always bought our Rowntrees fruit pastels for the trip home.
Christy
As a child I had to come up to London on a regular basis to St Bartholomew's Hospital for my eyes, so we would catch the train up, about an hour or less depending on which train you caught.
At the time I traveled up in the fifties and sixties it was still very much the old Victorian station with a labyrinth of dark tunnels leading into it on the last section. As you crossed the switch plates and made all the hard turns to get into the station, the train would clank and sway. It was very Victorian and in later years reminded me of Cadogan West, Sherlock Holmes.
In my minds eye I can still see all the steam trains lined up in rush hour for the journey out. I can hear the whistle blowing, the carriage doors clanging shut, the porters running up and down, and the conductors shouting the train numbers and station stops. I always liked the old carriages with the long corridors and separate compartments off, as you see in the old movies.
In the station W. H. Smith was not the sleek bright book store of today, but woody and the smell of damp newsprint, where we always bought our Rowntrees fruit pastels for the trip home.
Christy
I love seeing these old photos and hearing about what it was like when you were growing up! How interesting...and sounds like we are close to the same age, too!
ReplyDeleteI don't know which train station we used in Thorpeness...but I do remember even having tables to play cards on. That would be in the late 50's and early 60's. We got maltezers too to eat on the train. We love the rowntree fruit pastels too. Remember the fruit gums? They took some of our fillings out!
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